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aisuru sushi

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
by Mei

This place has service problems. Now that’s out of the way, you know what, we’ll probably be back. Their sushi rocks and I reckon a lot of you will like it. The sushi is made fresh to order in full view, so get some ring side seats and watch the action. It’s quite riveting, especially when they bring out the blowtorch.

One of the standout dishes is the tempura corn. The corn is cut fresh from the cob to get maximum sweetness and pop. Deep fried in light batter and drizzled with truffle oil (love it or hate it, truffle oil is awesome in this dish), when it gets to the table, it’s crunchy, sweet and sumptuously aromatic. We demolish the entree sized serving in seconds. It’s a good dish – but at $9.50 it should be.

Black velvet roll.

After the tempura corn, the sushi rolls came thick and fast. ‘Black velvet’ is presumably named for the black fish roe (which is described as caviar) garnish. Inside is a freshly cooked tempura prawn, crab stick and seared tuna, and the outside is topped with delicate layers of avocado. It’s an sensory mouthful of sushi which is simultaneously crunchy, raw, metallic, creamy (from both avocado and mayonnaise) and if that wasn’t enough, tiny salty pops of fish roe.

For tataki enthusiasts: skip it. Unlike the sushi, the beef tataki was pretty average and the ponzu in the dressing was weak, if it was there at all.

Black velvet roll again.

Spider roll. Hmm, now I can see why it’s called that.

Deep fried soft shell crab peeks out from the ‘spider roll’. The little legs catch every drop of batter, making each bite really crunchy. I like the black sesame seeds against the super fresh sushi rice, which was quickly cooled by hand just before opening. The sushi roll is lubricated with mayonnaise which makes it even more indulgent.

My favourite – the torch roll.

The ‘torch’ roll has a filling of a single tempura prawn (two, if you order 8 pieces) and crab stick, all wrapped in a snug quilt of rice. This is crowned in a hefty ensemble of saba (salted mackerel), raw tuna and spicy mayo. The topping is singed and speckled with a blowtorch, then finished generously with tobiko roe and spring onions. (It’s so pretty!)

The flavour is quite similar to the black velvet, but for the tang of saba (mackerel). The saba is lightly salted, so it’s slightly opaque with a firm, fishy taste – it tastes a lot better than it sounds! Especially covered in spicy mayo, it’s really quite good.

So hot it hurts… the topping of saba and tuna is singed by blowtorch.

Banana split maki.

For dessert we ordered the banana split maki, which looks like a Pucci design on a plate. Topped with strawberries and kiwifruit, the hot bites of deep fried banana are showered in chocolate and strawberry sauce. It looks totally tacky but does the trick as a sweet bite to end a meal.

Aisuru Sushi does food that’s crowd pleasing, fun and doesn’t require a lot of thinking, surely the recipe for a successful meal. The menu is exciting and includes a decent vegan menu.

However there are problems – a careless chef splattering customers with sauce; our order was not sent to the kitchen; billing was incorrect; and constant mix ups with orders (fortunately we had honest neighbours). I hope these teething problems work themselves out because the food and its quality are top notch. Try it.

The tempura corn really looks mouthwatering. Love the quality of the pictures and I think it made a good justice on the dishes because I really felt hungry while reading this post. Thanks for sharing this.